From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Twenty-six Wisconsin Dem lawmakers have joined a letter with hundreds of state legislators across the country calling on Congress to reject provisions in Republicans’ reconciliation package they said would “defund” Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood provides abortions as well as testing for sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, emergency contraception and vaccinations. The reconciliation bill would block Medicaid recipients from receiving care at Planned Parenthood health centers, according to the organization.
Lawmakers in the letter said Planned Parenthood serves women, people with low incomes, the Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ communities, and those who face barriers to care. They also said 64% of the group’s health centers are located in rural or medically underserved areas.
“The consequences of ‘defunding’ Planned Parenthood would be catastrophic, shutting down health centers and stripping millions of patients across the country of access to essential and affordable health care,” the lawmakers wrote. “No other provider would be able to fill the gap left by Planned Parenthood. ‘Defunding’ Planned Parenthood would deny millions of people access to essential and lifesaving health care.”
They said the provision is “the latest in the ongoing, politically motivated attacks against Planned Parenthood and abortion providers.”
A spokesperson for the state GOP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter. Republicans included the provision barring Medicaid from funding services at clinics that perform abortions due to their opposition to the procedure.
See the release below.
— In a recent column, Wisconsin Hospital Association President and CEO Eric Borgerding argues a House budget proposal would have “have severe and unfair consequences” for health care in the state.
Borgerding says the budget reconciliation bill currently in the U.S. House of Representatives would lock in Medicaid payment rates for Wisconsin if passed into law. Because Wisconsin “ranks among the lowest states in the nation” for the amount of federal support it gets for Medicaid, he argues the proposal would “unfairly punish” the state.
“And while most states will be allowed to use federal Medicaid dollars to reimburse their hospitals well above the cost to provide care, the House bill actually prohibits Wisconsin from paying its hospitals more than 74% of what it costs to provide care,” Borgerding wrote in the column, which was published in the Wisconsin State Journal.
He notes hospitals in the state already lose 38 cents for every dollar they spend to provide care for Medicaid patients, for a $1.6 billion annual shortfall.
Meanwhile, the current House proposal would also freeze the state’s “provider assessments” on hospitals at 2007 levels, Borgerding notes, limiting a mechanism used to bring in additional federal dollars.
“Time is running out to remedy these glaring inequities,” he wrote. “We need our congressional delegation to work quickly and together to change the House legislation and allow us the same opportunities now being guaranteed for nearly every other state, but being taken away for Wisconsin.”
Read the full column here.
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